Keeping Distance
by takashimio
Summary: Kris had been ignoring Tao since Exo-M returned to Korea. He was too excited to meet his best friend, Chanyeol. Baekhyun had a hard time figuring out if Chanyeol could leave Kris and Tao alone and move on. Main pairing taoris
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jealousy

They stepped into the plane in a hurry. They were too excited to finally return to Korea after several months promoting in China. Luhan looks tired but he was happy because finally he could see his best mate Sehun. They exchanged mails continuously since the day before. Chen and Xiumin were excited too because they could return to their country and played with Exo-K members again. Lay, being close to Kai, had made a promise to go shopping together. Tao could not wait to reach Korea, he missed them terribly. Well, he almost cried when their manager told them that they would return to Korea for Inkigayo and skype-ing all night with Baekhyun, D.O, and Sehun (before Sehun and Luhan sabotaged them). The leader of Exo-M, Kris, was humming his and Chanyeol's favorite song since he woke up that day.

Tao glanced at duizhang and sighed. Somehow, the older man had been ignoring him since the morning. He thought that maybe Kris was too excited to meet Chanyeol. He was busy with his phone (well, he knew that when Kris chuckled, he was texting Chanyeol) until they were in the lounge. Tao knew that once they were in Korea, he would be ignored by Kris who would cling to Chanyeol. Chanyeol was Kris' closest friend in Korea. The younger rapper confessed to the older once before, but Kris rejected him. Nevertheless, they were still close as ever and sometimes made Tao jealous to be honest.

After several hours, they finally reached the dorm and the first thing they did was visiting K's dorm (with Luhan in the front, giggling). "Sehun-aaah!" Luhan screamed when Suho opened the door. He took his shoes off and jumped into Sehun's arms. "I miss you guys!" Kai hugged them one by one as Suho let them in.

"Chanyeol-ah, long time no see!"Kris put his arm along the younger's shoulders and dragged him to sofa. They were totally in their own world. Tao sighed, but smiled when Baekhyun and D.O hugged him and offered him snacks.

"What's wrong?" Baekhyun asked when he noticed Tao was a little not in the mood. Lay, who was drinking next to them was listening too.

"Kris-ge has been ignoring me since this morning." The youngest answered, glancing at Kris and Chanyeol in the living room. Baekhyun smiled and patted his head, "He's just excited to see his closest friend." Baekhyun stared again at them and sighed. Lay just made sure he was paying attention to Kris' movement. No one could make maknae cried, especially Kris.

Not long after that, Kris walked to the kitchen where Tao, Baekhyun, and Lay were chatting. Seeing Kris walked toward them, Baekhyun and Lay decided to leave them alone so they could talk. "Gege, I'm going back to dorm now." Tao said when he noticed Kris next to him. "Huh, what's wrong?" Kris asked, pouring milk into a glass. "I'm kind of jet lag or something." The youngest answered. Duizhang put his hand on Tao's forehead. "You have a slight fever. Weird, Chanyeol said he had a fever as well. You should rest." Kris gave him their house's key. Tao pouted and grabbed the key and left the K dorm.

The leader shrugged and returned to Chanyeol. The Korean rapper was browsing through Weibo and chuckled when he saw something interesting. "I don't know if they are genius or something, but fans noticed how you and Tao are so close to each other." Chanyeol showed the photo where Tao was glued to Kris accidentally on the stage. He saw the comment below the photo;

Kris and Tao are real


	2. Chapter 2

KEEPING DISTANCE CHAPTER 2

The rest of Exo-M members returned to their own dorm around midnight. The boys are dead tired from playing too much. Chen immediately claimed the first bathroom, while Xiumin claimed the other one. Luhan was the only one who did not return, probably sleeping at Sehun's place. Lay was waiting for the bath and rested in his room. Kris warmed up some milk for the boys and Tao walked to the kitchen to greet him.

"How's your fever?" the leader asked, brushing his boyfriend's hair gently.

"I'm fine now." Tao took the hand and played with it. Kris sighed, he had something to say and Tao was waiting for him to spill it out.

Another sigh.

"Zitao...I think we should not stick together in public so much. Fans and other people begin to notice.. and I don't really like that. Remember that manager-hyung found out himself about us because we were always together?" Kris explained, turned off the stove and the younger man grabbed his wrist suddenly. Kris did not want to see Tao's face at that time or he would be tottering. Tao did not say anything, stunned by the sudden request of his boyfriend and thinking about things to say.

"Gege, I thought you were okay with this..." Tao asked, demanding explanation. "I was fine about it, but now it's different. I don't want people to find out about us. Being together is risky enough for us, don't you think?." Kris eyes finally met Tao's and he could see that the younger was taken aback by his explanation.

There was a long pause and painful silence between them as Kris exchanged looks with Tao.

"Why suddenly...?" Tao asked again.

"I saw a picture of us on the internet...Chanyeol showed me."

_Chanyeol-ge again...? What picture? _ Those questions were left unsaid.

Tao let go of his hand on Kris' wrist.

"So you want me to stay away from you in public and you don't want people to know about us? I get it." Tao rephrased what Kris had explained. He looked at Kris once again to make sure that it was really what Kris wanted, but Kris seemed determined.

"...Okay." Tao's voice was cracking before he left to his bedroom.

The older one knew this would be hard on Tao, but he really wanted to keep their relationship save from public. He did not want to risk their career by acting all lovey dovey when there were cameras around them. Deciding that he should let Tao calmed down, he put 4 cups of hot milk on the table like always before he too, was heading to his bedroom.

Tao was trying to digest Kris' words carefully. Kris did not want people to find out and told him to stay away from him. He was really upset by things that went wrong today. He thought that once Kris returned from K's dorm, he would have a nice talk with him but it was the other way. When he tried to think about Kris' words, he remembered how Chanyeol and Kris were really close to each other before. It only made things worst.

Tao finally let out a tear and burried his face on the sheet. "Damn." He muttered.

"Tao, is manager-ge staying here tonight?" Lay knocked twice and shocked when he saw Tao was crying. "Tao, what's wrong? Are you sick?" Lay closed the door and sat next to the youngest. Tao shook his head and told Lay everything.

Manager-ge woke them up early in the morning and told them to dress. They would have a schedule at SBS with Exo-K and they had to get their make up done within 3 hours. "God, Tao what happened to your eyes? They are swollen and red. Gosh, we'll fix them later okay." Manager-ge patted Tao's head, but Tao did not react at all. Kris glanced at his boyfriend and noticed that Tao must have been crying all night. "You sit next to me in the car." Lay surrounded his arm along Tao's shoulder, before he gave Kris a glare. The leader sighed, obviously Tao told Lay about what happened.

They made their way to the van and walked in silence. _It was that uncomfortable_, even Chen and Xiumin noticed how hard it was just to walk toward the van and enjoy the ride.

"What the hell happen with you guys?" Xiumin frowned, breaking the awkward silence.

Before Kris could say something, manager-ge dragged him to the side of the car and whispered, "You'd better make up with Tao before we go to LA." He threatened a little. Tao's bad mood would obviously affect his performance. Bad performance meant bad scold from managers.

The leader sighed and the manager pulled Tao's arm and pushed him into the van and Kris just right after him. They both sat on the back with Lay right next to Kris. Tao tried his best to look outside the window, ignoring his boyfriend who was glancing at him. He really had to settle things down or he would get into trouble when they reached LA on Saturday. Imagining that the 10 hours flight would be like hell, not to mention he had to take care of other 10 kids with Suho.


	3. Chapter 3

Inside the van, Lay was having a bad headache as he prayed that Tao and Kris would make up. The aura around him was bad, he wanted to leave the van already. Xiumin slept right away and Lay really wished he had the ability to fast asleep like Xiumin. Chen glanced to Lay, Kris, and Tao once in a while, because he was curious with the sudden gloomy aura. Luhan, well, being Luhan. He texted Sehun and listening to his ipod.

"Zitao, about yesterday –"

"Later, ge. Not here." Tao cut him off.

Lay's phone was vibrating and he received a mail from Luhan. Lay looked at the Luhan's back. Luhan sat in front of him, so why he received a text from him?

'_Tao and Kris are fighting?'_ Wow, so Luhan noticed the awkward silence and tense aura. Lay immediately replied, '_Yes. I wish I could feels like hell. Tao's really pissed.' _Lay made sure Kris did not see his phone.

'_Oh, poor Yixing. By the way, why Tao's angry? Because of Chanyeol? (like always, like this is the hundredth time maybe)'._Lay giggled, making Kris turned to him, but Lay tried to calm down and replied the text.

'_Yeah. You know Kris, he's always so excited when he gets to see Chanyeol. Yesterday Kris told Tao not to stick to him because he didn't like rumors about them. Tao told me everything last night.'_

'_Kris really has a lot of manly pride lol. Poor baby Tao... Anyway, Tao is professional, he won't show any flaws in front of camera, except accidental fancams (maybe, like you know being grumpy and glares at everyone). Hope they'll make up soon.'_

' _I hope so too L.'_

They finally reached MBC and Kris went out first as leader to talk to the manager. Tao followed from behind with Lay. Tao's face was grumpy until they were inside the building, he was forced to smile. "Ayyo, wassup M!" Chanyeol, being hyper like always, welcomed them at the make up room. Exo-K was going to watch their performance in Show Champion.

"OMG, I have to fix your swollen eyes." The make up artists shouted when he saw Tao's eyes. "Ah, sorry nuna. I can't sleep last night. Too much games." Tao lied and showed his aegyo to her. "Aish, this kid. Come, follow me." She dragged him in front of the mirror.

Baekhyun noticed his swollen eyes and walked to Lay. "He looks grumpy and he hates games. I guess he cried last night?" he asked Lay although his eyes were looking at Chanyeol, sticking against Kris like hyper puppy. Lay almost clapped his hands for Baekhyun's observation. Seriously, he could be a detective when he was older.

"Yeah. Look at those insensitive men." Lay sighed, pointing at Kris and Chanyeol. Baekhyun suddenly felt down, realizing that what he predicted about Tao's reason for crying was true.

"This is hard for me too, you know." Baekhyun whispered. Lay immediately looked at him, speechless. How the hell he did not notice?

"I like Chanyeol. Sehun and Luhan know about it and I thought you knew..." the singer added. Lay only took a deep breath and pat Baekhyun's back. "Patience, Baekhyun-ah. I know Chanyeol will get over Kris soon." Lay cheered him up. Baekhyun was not so sure about that. He was sleeping in the same room with Chanyeol every single day. The rapper kept talking about Kris this and Kris that. He always told him that he wished he was Kris' boyfriend instead of Tao too.

Baekhyun gazed at Chanyeol. All of this time, he could only chase his back and he was not sure if he could reach closer to him. It would take a long time for Chanyeol to forget his feeling for Kris and if it was the case, he could wait.


End file.
